Device for separating one specimen from a plurality of elongated electrically conductive flexible bodies



Nov. 26, 1963 w. PONSEN 3,1 34

DEVICE FOR SEPARATING ONE SPECIMEN FROM A PLURALITY OF ELONGATEDELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE FLEXIBLE BODIES Filed Nov. 2, 1961 INVENTORWILLEM PONSEN United States Patent DEVHCE FOR SEPARATING (ENE SPEQHMENFRGM A PLURALITY 0F ELONGATED ELECTRXALLY CONDUCTEVE FLEXHELE BODHEWillem Ponsen, Emmasingel, Eindhoven, Netherlands, assignor to NorthAmerican Philips Qompany, lino, New York, N.Y., a corporation ofDelaware Filed Nov. 2, 1961, Ser. No. 149,639 Claims priority,appiication Netherlands Nov. 9, 1 65 5 Claims. (Cl. 294-1) The inventionrelates to a device for separating one specimen from a plurality oflight, elongated, electrically conductive, flexible bodies such ashelically wound, incandescent bodies for use in electrical incandescentlamps, which bodies are arranged in a container.

In a known device a filament body is separated from the others byelectro-static agency with the aid of a lifting member. The filament isthen partly lifted, then grasped by a pick-up member and completelyremoved from the container. One of the disadvantages of this knowndevice resides in that an additional pick-up member is always required,so that there is a greater risk of damage to the body already singledout. With the known device it will therefore be preferred to lift thefilament concerned always at one end, where any damage is hardlyharmful.

The device according to the invention is characterized in that it isprovided with a lifting member having an electro-static potentialdifference with respect to the bodies in the container and being adaptedto approach the bodies closely and to move away therefrom and having anopening communicating with a suction duct and constituting a locatingarea for a body lifted at least partly. Over the known device thisarrangement with the suction opening has the advantage that the liftingforce exerted by the electro-static potential difference on the filamentbody to be lifted is materially increased. The use of a suction openingin the lifting member has a further advantage in that the filament bodywill occupy an accurately predetermined position on the lifting membersince a filament lifted by electro-static force will automatically findits way to the location area formed by the suction opening. This is notthe case with devices not provided with a suction opening, where thefilament body will occupy a fairly arbitrary position on the liftingmember. A further advantage of the use of a device according to theinvention resides in that the height of lifting can be considerablyenlarged, so that the separated filament body can be removed completelyout of the container and be conveyed to its place of destination by thelifting member itself without the intermediary of a pick-up member sinceas soon as a singled body closes the suction opening it is no longernecessary and even undesirable to maintain an electric difference.

It is known per se to use only reduced pressure to hold objects,however, if the objects are elongated and helically wound, for exampleif the objects are filaments for use in electrical incandescent lamps,it is not always certain that only one specimen will be lifted from aplurality of bodies lying in a container.

With one embodiment of the device according to the invention thecontainer is arranged with respect to the lifting member so that, whenthe lifting member is in its position nearest the container, the centreof each of. the bodies in the container lies approximately opposite thelocation area of the lifting member. Lifting the filament bodyapproximately by the centre instead of lifting it by the end by means ofthe lifting member of known devices has the advantage that the frictionof the body to be lifted with the other bodies in the container plays aconsiderably less important part so that a body already slightly liftedcan be removed more easily. I

3,ll2,iiid

61 a further embodiment the opening of the lifting member is shaped inthe form of a slot. Thus a lifted filament body can engage the slot overa suitable part of its length; it closes the slot and then occupies adefined preferred position relative to the lifting member. A slotshapedopening may be obtained in a simple manner by flattening one end of atube.

in a further embodiment the lifting member constitutes at the same timea conveying member for transporting and piacing a single body at aremote station, so that an additional conveying member is dispensedwith.

In a final embodiment the location area of the lifting member occupiesan at least substantially horizontal position at the instant when thelifting member releases a lifted body, whilst the longitudinal directionof the slot-shaped openins is parallel at this instant to the prescribedlongitudinal direction of the object at the station. The elongatedopening in this embodiment has the particular advantage that a separatedbody can be delivered each time in a reproduceable manner at a stationremote from the container.

PKG. 1 of the diagrammatical drawing shows a side view of the essentialelements of one embodiment of the device according to the invention.FIG. 2 is a side view of part of the lifting member of PEG. 1. FIG. 3 isa plan view, without baseplate. In these figures the FIG. 1 is a viewaccording to line 1-1 from FIG. 3.

A baseplate It carries a container 2 in which a plurality of helicallywound filament bodies 3 for use in electrical incandescent lamps areorientated as a bundle. With the aid of a lifting member 4, which at thesame time serves as a transporting member these filament bodies can theremoved individually from the container 2 and be conveyed to a dosingstation, in this case a dosing drum 5, remote from the container 1 (FIG.3). This dosing drum forms part of a machine for manufacturing lamps,and is adapted to be turned stepwise and has at its circumference aplurality of axial grooves to accomrnodate each only one filament body;the structure is otherwise the same as used in such a machine.

The hollow, tubular lifting member iis secured to an arm 6 of insulatingmaterial. This arm 6 is secured to a sleeve 7, which in turn is attachedto a shaft 8, being slidable and pivotable in its housing 9 mounted onthe baseplate 1. The movements of this shaft 8 are such that the arm 6can be lowered just above and not in contact with the filament bodies 3in the container 2, then raised, turned to the dosing drum 5 and loweredagain in order to drop the transported filament body on the drum 5. Inthe lowermost position the centres of the filament bodies are locatedapproximately opposite the opening 3th of the lifting member 4. This iseifected by a cam mechanism, consisting of a continuously rotatableshaft 10 having cams ill and 12, cooperating with camrollers 13 and 14.The camroller 13 forms part of a lever 15 being pivotable at an axis 16.This lever 15 is coupled to a crank 18 by means of another lever 17. Thecrank 13 is slidably attached to the shaft 8 showing a slit 1%. Theshape of the camltl is such that on rotating the shaft 19 the arm isintenmittently swung between the container 2 and the dosing drum 5 andheld in these extreme positions a short time. The camroller 14- formspart of a lever 29, which is pivotable at 21 and is further providedwith another roller 22. This roller 22, cooperates with the lower partof the shaft 8. The camrollers '13 and 14 are held against the cams l1and 12 by means of springs 24 and 25.

The arm 6 is furthermore provided with a flexible strip 31, which isadapted to move downwards or upwards with the shaft 8. At thetermination of the downward movement of this shaft 8 it can establish acontact with the tag 33. Between the tag 33 and the container 2prev-ails a potential dilference of for example 5006 v. direct voltage,derived from a high voltage apparatus, indicated by 3- The container 2and the bodies lying therein are at earth potential in this embodiment.

The lifting member 4 has a slot-shaped opening 36 obtained by flatteningthe lower end 36 of a tube; at the top end it communicates via a rubberhose 3% with a suction pump 3?. The suction-action in theconnection-line can be interrupted by means of a valve 41. This valve4-1 is actuated by a switch 42, which once per revolution cooperatesWith a further cam 43.

The filament bodies are individually removed and transported as follows.

On rotating the shaft 16, the arm 6 arrives at the situation indicatedby dotted lines in FIG. 3. Out of its top position the lifting member 4,communicating with the suction duct, is then moved downwards. As soon asthe flexible strip 31 is in contact with the tag 33 and then bendsslightly over, the strip and the lifting member 4 are charged to a highpositive potential. Thus an electrostatic field is introduced into thefilament bodies 3 in the container 2 and under the action thereof thefilament bodies exert a repelling force on each other. The part of thefilament body nearest the lower end of the lifting member 4 jumps upagainst this member 4 and will thus close the suction opening 30.Immediately thereupon the lifting member 4 is moved upwards, theelectric contact is interrupted and the filament body partly lifted byelectro-static force is drawn further out of the container solely withthe aid of suction. The suction opening 30 thus constitutes a locationfor the removed filament body .5.

Owing to the suction opening 30 the separated filament body arrivesalways at accurately predetermined place of the lifting member. if thisopening was not provided, the filament body would arrive at a fairlyarbitrary place of the lifting member.

It should furthermore be noted that a filament body cannot be suspendedon the lifting member 4 completely free of the further filament bodies,if only electro-static force of attraction was concerned. In this casethe filament body 45, when set free of the further bodies would assumeimmediately the same potential as the lifting member 4, so that thelatter would repel it.

Rotating the shaft 10 causes the lifting member 4, arranged above thecontainer 2 in its topmost position, to transport the separated filamentbody 4:3 towards a station of delivery, in this case a dosing drum 5(FIG. 3). At this place the lifting member, which thus fulfills thefunction of a conveyor, is lowered above one of the axial grooves in thedrum 5. By then obviating the reduced pressure in the lifting member bymeans of the cam actuated switch 42 the filament body 55 is detached andit arrives in the groove concerned. The slot-shaped opening 30 plays animportant part in this process, since it holds a separated filament bodyalways in the same, pre scribed manner at the location area of thelifting member. The location area for the separated filament body willbe preferably horizontal at least at the instant when the memberdisengages the body; moreover the direction of length of the slot-shapedopening is chose to be parallel to the grooves of the dosing drum 5.

In the embodiment described above the filament bodies are locateduniformly side by side and one on the other in the container 2. However,it has been found to be permissible of arranging the filament bodies ina more or less disordered position in the container.

In this embodiment the lifting member 4 has a positive potential and thebodies 3 are at a negative potential. As a matter of course, the partsmay have the reverse potentials.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for separating and removing a single electricallyconductive body from a plurality of said bodies comprising a movablevacuum pick-up member having a nozzle at one end closed by said body inengagement therewith, means supporting said body for movement, meansconnecting said pickup member with a vacuum source and means adjacentthe path of movement of said pickup member and proximate said pluralityof bodies for creating an electric potential between said picleup andsaid plurality of bodies, whereby one of said bodies iselectro-statically attracted to said pick-up when said pick-up is movedinto proximity with said plurality of bodies and held on said pick-up bydifierential pressure when said potential is removed by movement of saidpick-up away from said plurality of bodies.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 with the addition of means fororienting said bodies to close said pick-up nozzle when attractedthereto.

3. Apparatus for separating and removing a light bulb filament from anopen container having plurality of said filament aligned therein,comprising a movable vacuum pick-up member having an elongated nozzle atone end aligned with said filaments, means for connecting said pickupwith a vacuum source and means for movably supporting said pick-up,means engageable by said pick-up creating an electrostatic potentialbetween said pick-up in engagement therewith and said plurality offilaments for attracting one of said plurality of filaments to closesaid nozzle whereby said filament is secured to said pick-up when saidpotential is removed.

4. Apparatus for separating and removing a single electricallyconductive body from a plurality of said bodies comprising a vacuumpick-up member having a nozzle means supporting said pick-up formovement proximate said plurality of bodies, electrostatic meansproximate said plurality of bodies for electrostatically separating oneof said bodies nd attaching it to said nozzle whereby said separatedbody is removably secured to said pick-up member.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said elec' trostatic meansincludes said pick-up member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,655,954 Gartner et al Oct. 20, 1953 2,764,890 Harwood Oct. 2, 19562,891,668 Hunt June 23, 1959 2,947,446 Warkoczewaki Aug. 2, 1960

1. APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING AND REMOVING A SINGLE ELECTRICALLYCONDUCTIVE BODY FROM A PLURALITY OF SAID BODIES COMPRISING A MOVABLEVACUUM PICK-UP MEMBER HAVING A NOZZLE AT ONE END CLOSED BY SAID BODY INENGAGEMENT THEREWITH, MEANS SUPPORTING SAID BODY FOR MOVEMENT, MEANSCONNECTING SAID PICKUP MEMBER WITH A VACUUM SOURCE AND MEANS ADJACENTTHE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF SAID PICKUP MEMBER AND PROXIMATE SAID PLURALITYOF BODIES FOR CREATING AN ELECTRIC POTENTIAL BETWEEN SAID PICK-UP ANDSAID PLURALITY OF BODIES, WHEREBY ONE OF SAID BODIES ISELECTRO-STATICALLY ATTRACTED TO SAID PICK-UP WHEN SAID PICK-UP IS MOVEDINTO PROXIMITY WITH SAID PLURALITY OF BODIES AND HELD ON SAID PICK-UP BYDIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE WHEN SAID POTENTIAL IS REMOVED BY MOVEMENT OF SAIDPICK-UP AWAY FROM SAID PLURALITY OF BODIES.